A generation has passed since Lee Iacocca left Chrysler but that hasn’t stopped people from fawning over the first celebrity CEO with breathless adjectives like “blunt,” “cigar-wielding,” or “straight-talking.”

The thing is, Iacocca talking about the auto industry in 2010 is a little like a football coach from the 1970s extolling the virtues of the wishbone offense in the college game. Interesting, if not entirely relevant.

Dec. 3, Detroit News: "Keep your hands off of (the auto companies)," Iacocca said he told task force co-chairman Larry Summers, now President Barack Obama's top economic adviser. "You can't run a business out of Washington, D.C."

He also said too many dealers were closed and questioned the “fairness” of cuts to white-collar pensions in the bankruptcy process.

Iacocca’s idea of a bailout, it seems, is the arrangement he and Jimmy Carter worked out 30 years ago. Give a company a big pile of money and things will work out.

Back then it did work out, sort of. Chrysler didn’t die and it repaid the government seven years ahead of schedule. But 28 years and two outside ownership groups later, Chrysler was back on the brink. Whatever short-term boost the company received wasn’t enough to correct the firm’s systemic problems in the marketplace.

Worse, it set a precedent for similar “here’s some cash” bailouts to other industries, most notably the airlines and Wall Street. For whatever else it may have done, DC’s more meddlesome approach to the GM/Chrysler bankruptcy bailouts hopefully changed the model.

And while he's generally upbeat about the post-bankruptcy industry, when it comes to vehicle design, Iacocca again seems out-of-touch.

Dec. 3, Detroit News: Iacocca believes Chrysler is finally on the right track, but he isn't convinced all of its moves with partner Fiat SpA make sense — especially the decision to bring the tiny Fiat 500 to the U.S. market yet this year."It's a little car. It fits in Italy. Whether it will fit on the California freeway, I'm not too sure," Iacocca said, pointing to the poor sales of the Smart car as a cautionary tale.

Considering all manner of subcompact cars thrive on European highways like the autobahn, the Fiat should survive the Pacific Coast Highway just fine. Even if that wasn’t the case, so what?

The Fiat 500 may not be for everyone but it fits a market that the domestics have -- under the leadership of Iacocca and his contemporaries -- long taken for granted. It’s the kind of car that works for urbanites in places like Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco.

No one would question producing the Dodge Ram just because it’s a ridiculous vehicle to drive around midtown Manhattan.

Iacocca had a brilliant career at Ford and Chrysler. That can't be denied. The Mustang is an icon and the minivan remains essential to several carmakers. But the auto industry needs to be looking forward, not backward. Talking to Lee Iacocca is just cliché at this point.